Half n Half
by kisa sohma cookie
Summary: When Joey was asked to take the garbage out that day at work, he got a lot more than he bargained for. Is it too much to ask for a kaiba-less day? Well at least the little one isn't as bad, but where one goes the other isn't far behind. Rated T for some language, Seto/Joey if you squint.


When Joey was asked to take the garbage out that day, as usual for the average Tuesday working at Duel - Bucks (get it? real subtle huh..?) He had expected the abrupt wet suffocation of humidity. The summer had been much like that lately, rainy and muggy. He also anticipated the smell from the alley beside the coffee shop courtesy of the dumpster propped there. There was however one thing he was not expecting..

The youngest Kaiba brother was currently slumped on the stoop of the property next door. He'd actually run the risk of being whacked in the head by the door, or sited for soliciting if the place hadn't been out of business for several months now.

Now to see a Kaiba brother slumped in a fashion at all was odd , slightly less so for Mokuba than his elder. But in public? And so close to the ground? The only reason Joey could possibly see behind it is that 1. Seto Kaiba was not there to insist Mokuba straighten up lest he catch a disease from the commoners sidewalk...yeesh..and number 2. Something was affecting the boy enough that he hadn't had the presence of mind to slip into the coffee shop next door. One that had multiple chairs and reasonably comfy lounges to slouch on if he was in the middle of some prepubescent sulking. Something was wrong.

Joey tossed the garbage bag into the alleyway for now and crouched by Mokuba, hand on his shoulder and gently shaking him. The big brother in him going into 'protect' mode, Kaiba brother or not.

"Ey...ey Mo, come on, you alright?" He glanced over him as best he could. No injuries from what he could tell. No sign that he had slipped in the rain somehow, hit his head or any other part of him. His cheeks were flushed though, and he groaned a little at the jostling in protest but didn't move to push Joey away. A thick sounding cough resounded from him. He tried to nestle into the doorframe away from any light or sound and subsequently, Joey.

"Aw man..you been out here too long haven't ya.." Joey murmered, more so to himself as he pressed a hand to the boys forehead, then around the back of his neck. the top half of his shirt soaked through. Sure enough, he was burning up, "The heck are you even doin out here alone, kid? Come on lets get ya inside."

For the briefest moment Joey hesitated. Like a hiker would spotting a baby bear on its own, waiting for the mama bear to come out of nowhere and commence mauling. When Kaiba didn't jump down from one of his compulsive helicopters (as he had a habit of doing,) he deemed it safe to handle Mokuba enough to get him in piggyback position and carry him inside the shop.

"Mina! I'm takin' my break!" He called to his fellow barista. (or would he be a baristo technically? eh whatever..) Because of the rain it was a slower day, so Mina didn't offer any protest. She did however gesture vaguely to the child draped over his back like 'The fuck?'..

"I know the kids brother, must have caught a cold and kinda passed out where he dropped. I'm gonna give him a call once I get him settled somewhere"

Mina shrugged as her way of acceptance to this explanation, and went back to inspecting the inventory. The girl, from what he could remember, was not overly fond of kids...or people in general. So as long as no one was getting hurt she was probably happy he'd elected to handle the situation himself.

Joey knelt so he could gently deposit Mokuba into an armchair, one that would prop him more or less upright. He did need to get the kid at least somewhat conscious to get some answers.

He upended a water bottle carefully on a couple of napkins in his hand, ignoring how it dripped on the leg of his pants and started to pat at Mokuba's clammy forehead. The water was cool, compared to the muggy rain outside. So it didn't surprise him to see the boy's eyes start to flutter open. Dull as they were as he looked back at him listlessly a moment.

"Mm?" was about all Mokuba could seem to summon, in confusion.

Joey gave a gentle sort of half smile "Hey kid..it's Joey...ya do know its Joey right? How many fingers have I got?" He asked, quietly but playfully as Mokuba briefly rolled his eyes in way of answer. He must have regretted this because he winced a moment after, groaning again, then coughed as a chain reaction.

"Joey? wha?.."

"Found you outside kiddo, you got a summer cold washing over you in a bad way. Think you can call your bro to come pick you up?"

Mokuba, for whatever reason, seemed to take issue with this. Eyebrows furrowing and turning his head away, closing his eyes again. Whether he couldn't be bothered to call because he'd rather sleep, or something else, Joey could only guess. When Joey went to shake him awake again he was met with a whine and batting of the hands, so he was at least still conscious.

Joey sighed, not wanting to upset the kid when he was sick. He ran a hand through his hair, making its general unruliness stick up even more " Alright alright, how bout I call him for you...but I gotta use your phone."

Because of course he didn't have Kaiba's number. Even if Kaiba OFFERED his phone number he probably wouldn't take it. Even Yugi didn't know what it was. You'd think with how often Kaiba imposed his duel obsession on his friend he'd have the common decency to offer a text ahead of time as warning. But nope. Kicking open the door and demanding Yugi's soul attention (heh, irony), that was more Kaiba's style..

Mokuba managed to wriggle his phone out of his pocket just enough for Joey to take it, searching through his contacts till he finally decided he could only be the one labelled 'BIG BRO'

He tried to school his expression into one that didn't look like he'd just swallowed a frog rather than place a call, as Mokuba was still watching him blearily, but that was Joey's instinctual reaction when it came to Seto Kaiba most days. He braced himself as the line picked up after the third ring.

"Mokuba, where are you? " The raspy voice on the other end snapped immediately. Joey winced and chalked it up to Kaiba being worried about his displaced brother, rather than wonder if this is how he talked to the kid all the time..

"Kaiba, it's Joey Wheeler- DON'T HANG UP!" He said quickly at the eerie silence on the other end, "Look, I thought you should know, I found Mokuba outside my workplace with a fever-"

"What? How did he..where are you?" Kaiba darted from one end of his thought process to another faster than joey could pretend to keep up, "I swear if anything happens to him, Wheeler.." He growled.

"The hell you take me for Kaiba? I got the kid out of the rain and he's restin. I told him we should call you but he didn't wanna do it himself for some reason.." He felt his eyebrows furrow as he tilted his head in confusion "You guys have a fight or something?"

"I don't need to explain anything to you, Mutt." The man replied, icily.

"I'll take that as a yes." Joey felt he was entitled to a pinch of snark. He was rewarded with a sound on Kaiba's end that he's pretty sure he heard come out of a tigers enclosure at the zoo.

"I'll be there shortly, just try not to make my brother worse under your care."

The phone hung up before Joey could come back with anything but that wasn't so strange. Now he could have blown up, like kaiba wanted, but Joey elected to breathe in and out slowly, puffing his bangs out of his eyes before returning to the more important task at hand. He reached up and untied his own hair tie (work had insisted that he try to keep his hair at least somewhat tame while handling people's drinks and food, so he kept it in a ponytail. Tea told him it made him look like some modern day samurai or something. It made him kinda happy.)

He tried to tie Mokuba's mane of black hair up into a ponytail so it wouldn't yank at his scalp uncomfortably. Mokuba grunted curiously.

"Getting your hair off your neck, Mo, might help cool that fever, same as this." He draped another wet napkin on the back of his neck, replacing the one on his forehead as well which had now warmed. "Want some juice? Or do ya want water. You should drink somethin alright?"

The boy looked slightly sour to be kept awake, but he glanced over at the selection in the cooler behind the counter.

"Juice..please." He croaked. Mina must have heard him because a bottle of orange juice was hurtling towards Joey in the next moment and he only barely caught it. He gave her a look before unscrewing it for mokuba to sip at.

With the extent of what he could do physically to help the kid, joey plopped into the window sill seat beside him, mentally keeping an eye out for Kaiba's car whilst he did so "How's that, any better?"

Mokuba 'hm'ed a little and nodded dozily, glancing at him "Thanks.."

Joey gave him another half smile "Don't mention it kid..wasn't gonna just leave you out there. But i would like to know why you were out there in the first place..not like your bro to let you just wander the city alone."

Mokuba snorted derisively. Then sneezed as a result and joey handed him a napkin for a tissue.

"Tell me about it.." the boy rasped, his throat must be sore, which would explain his unwillingness to talk. He looked down at his drink a moment, that familiar melancholy look in his eyes that a kid like him really shouldn't have to have at this age. "We had a fight.."

"No kiddin. Think you can embellish on what?"

Mokuba sighed and played with his bottle cap absently, probably trying to think of a way to explain without straining his throat any further.

"He just...know? And he's always just...urrgh!" He made a vague sort of growl noise clenching a fist, " why can't we just...be normal for once?"

Eeyup, the fever was definitely setting in ,

"Believe me Mo , I've been asking the same thing about your brother for years now. But seems a bit out of character for you to bring that up all of a sudden." Sort of. Who knew if this is exactly what he'd articulated to Kaiba or not. "What was he doing that wasn't bein normal?..besides his usual shtick."

The boy made a frustrated sort of whine, clearly knowing he wasn't making the most sense but not having the capacity to fix it under these circumstances, "Jus' wanted to go somewhere..just me and him for a while. No bodyguards, no work, no rivalry with Yugi just...us. Like we used to…"

Joey tilted his head and, thankfully, put the pieces together himself with a bit of observational skills. Contrary to popular belief he did have them he just reserved using them for the best times.

"I getcha...you just wanted to be bros and go have fun. Not have to worry about this borderline obsession and any nefarious world domination plots we been sucked into the past coupl 'a years.."

Mokuba sniffed, rubbing his nose on his sleeve and nodded.

"That's not a bad thing to want, or unreasonable...but Mokuba, ya gotta remember who your talkin to here. Seto Kaiba, your brother, the closest thing to a sentient robot we've gotten to in years.."

"He's a jackass." Mokuba grumbled sullenly.

"Ey, pardon your french..and yes yes he is, but for you he's a lovable jackass. He's your big brother, you at least gotta add the lovable part on there. It's the rule " Joey smirked as he caught Mokuba trying not to smile even if he wanted to keep sulking.

"You made that up.."

"Nah it's true, just ask my lil sis, Serenity! I'm her big doofy brother, but she can only call me that with the 'lovable' tagged on there!"

Despite himself, Mokuba started to snigger into his elbow, before coughing ," Stooop your makin' my throat hurt.." he whined.

Joey chuckled and ruffled the boys hair gently, "Believe me...I'd rather play contact sports with a cactus than spend 5 minutes in a room with your brother" Mokuba blinked owlishly at this, " ..But y'know what? He loves you more than anything else. And for that well..I guess I can't call him a total lost cause..can you?"

Mokuba sighed taking another sip of juice before he shook his head gently "Mm-mm.."

He knew Joey was right..his big brother didn't make it easy, but he was all he had in this world, and he knew deep down everything Seto did was for his own good. Or at least what he believed was his own good. It was hard to remember that Seto was still technically a teenager. He'd been forced to grow up way too fast for both of their sakes, and Mokuba hated that there was nothing he could do at the time to help besides offer him a supportive smile, and smuggle him a few playing cards for comfort. That's why now that they had the resources and time to make up for it, he found himself so frustrated when Seto dug his heals in. But like Joey said..he's not sure why he's so surprised. Maybe it was too much to hope for too soon..

Joey could see the boy slump a bit and he ruffed the back of his hair a bit, 'way to go Joe, way to kick the kid while he's down..' he sighed and nudged the boy lightly with his arm.

"Hey, come on, quit it with the long face. Ya got puppy eyes worse than a Kuriboh.."

Mokuba huffed a bit at him, too drained to come up with much more than "Yeah well..your face.."

Joey snickered lightly "Look, if anyone can get your brother to take the stick ou- I mean- lighten up a little, Its you. But you gotta meet him halfway sometimes or he's just gonna be more of a stubborn idiot about it...but when ya' feelin like your about to blow a gasket with him? Ya got friends you can go to for a break."

Mokuba smiled a little, tired and leaning against the chair heavily again, "Yeah?.."

"Course. " Joey gave him another sincere half smile, "Ya know the expression 'blood is thicker than water'? It's true but sometimes, some things are thicker than even that. That's how a chucklehead like me has gotten by all this time.." he reached out gently after a moment, resting his hand on top of his head again. Eyes softening when Mokuba closed his eyes smiling,

"How bout this..if you can get the warden to release you for a night? Why don't you come back here on friday. Serenity's gonna be visitin. I'm playin a gig here that night."

Mokuba's eyes blinked up at him hazily, "You're in a band..?" the heavy skepticism in his voice made Joey's eyebrow tick.

"I do got more interests than Duel Monsters kid.. "

"S'good...if you don't then you end up like Seto.." He mumbled dozily and he let his head tilt back onto the back of the chair. "..Yeah. Yeah I'd wanna go.."

"Invites open, on one condition. No more runnin away like this. Your bro's gotta at know where you are okay? I don't need him 'shock and awe'-ing the damn door down looking for you."

Mokuba just giggled knowing yes, that would in fact happen.

At that moment, Joey glanced behind him to see a sleek silver mercedes parallel park a little haphazardly by the curb. Seems Kaiba had forgone the limo in favor of getting here faster. He did his best to keep his face neutral and stand casual. But it didn't stop him from crossing his arms over his chest quietly defensive. He couldn't help it around Kaiba, even without the taunting and name calling, there was just something about him. He couldnt put his finger on it, he just..couldn't get a read on him. The dick would probably point out what he was feeling was

intimidation, but Joey vehemently denied it even inwardly. It was...unsettling was all. The way he always seemed to find his eyes in the crowd peering at them icily.

It gave him goosebumps along his spine in a way he couldnt explain, and it made him frown, rolling his shoulders as the gaze met his, sure enough, as the taller boy walked through the door.

Oddly though, for once, it was kaiba looking away first, kneeling in front of mokuba with the closest thing to concern joey had seen him have.

"Mokuba? Hey...what did you think you were doing wandering way out here in your condition.." Seto scolded, but for him it was light, a mere formality as he brushed the boys bangs away to feel his forehead.

Mokuba's eyes peaked open again wearily, and for a moment Joey thought he'd start to argue again but he just sighed, leaning into his brothers hand , "M'sorry.."

"We'll have a talk once your better, understand? ...About everything.." He added on quietly and Joey found himself smiling despite himself.

"Mhm..Joey said t' meet you half n' half.."

When Kaiba shot him a look he waved his palm back and forth with a wince "Eh, somethin' like that. He's close…"

"I see…and what other wisdom did Wheeler impart upon you.." His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "He gave me juice..an play's sports with cactus.."

Kaiba blinked slowly and Joey lifted a finger with the intention of explaining once again, "An' he said your a lovable donkey.."

Joey felt a record screech in his brain and he waved his arms, "Woah woah woah, I know your more cohesive than that Mo', that is NOT what I-"

"An' that some things are thicker than his blood.."

Joey tugged his shirt down over his thighs reflexively, flushing and not noticing blue eyes flick towards the movement, "Well now your jus' bein rude!"

Kaiba finally snorted and turned so he could lift Mokuba onto his back, much the same way Joey had before. Mokuba snuggled into his shoulder, and wrapped his arms around his neck. Hiding a small knowing smile.

"Trust me Wheeler, worry more for how thick your head is."

He grunted when Mokuba kicked his own thigh, admonishing him…"I suppose though, mutt...you didn't have to look after my brother as you did…"

Joey waited a moment, even leaned forward for the rest of the sentence but when it never came his eyebrows raised sarcastically, "Wow, half a thank you. Call the freakin tabloids.."

Kaiba sniffed tersely once again, "Make yourself useful and open the door.."

Joey made an overly exaggerated groan of exasperation, but did so. The kid needed to get home and rest, not listen to them bicker. He caught Mokuba's eye peeking out at him once more and he found himself smiling again.

"Remember what I said Mo, door's always open."

Mokuba smiled sleepily and nodded , "Mhm..I'll see you Joe." "See ya. "

Seto glowered at the mutt, loathing to be out of the loop but before he could voice his protest the girl with the tattoos behind the counter piped up for the first time before the door closed.

"Hey Joe, think I know which song you and the guys are covering on Friday!" She used her thumb to hit the play button on her phone, Queen's 'Fat Bottom Girls' came blaring out of it.

"Mina, I swear to _christ-_!" Joey's cheeks flared and sneakers squeaked in his haste to get across the floor and grab the phone.

Kaiba felt his lips reluctantly pull into a smirk as his brother giggled uncontrollably into his back. "Well aren't you proud of yourself.."

"Mhm"

The door clattered shut.

**hoo boy, I haven't written in ages. It felt good, and it felt good to revisit these boys again. I missed my sons..**

**Please let me know what you think, I may continue this particular story line at another date, when I have the time. I have ideas..its just whether life will let me get to them,**

**Thanks!**


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